This invention relates to a package for an endoscopic ligating instrument possessing a loop, or "noose", ligating element.
In the ligating instrument described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,476,114 and 3,476,115, an elongated tubular body member carries a ligature within its shaft, the ligature terminating in an external loop which is intended to be drawn tightly about a severed vessel to achieve hemostasis. An instrument of this type is currently being marketed in a packaging unit which includes a relatively stiff retainer card upon which the instrument is mounted with one end of the instrument being held in place at one end of the retainer card by means of a die-cut securing strap positioned near this end of the card and the other, or loop, end of the instrument being held in place at the opposite end of the retainer card through the tensioned engagement of the loop upon a semicircular retainer card extension at such opposite end. The retainer card with a ligating instrument secured thereto is sealed within an outer flexible package which maintains the instrument in the sterile condition. To remove the instrument from the package, the top panel of the package is stripped away, and the instrument is separated from the exposed retainer card.
The foregoing package poses several disadvantages for the packaging of a loop-type ligating instrument of the type described. For one, there is the possibility that during transit and/or handling of the package, the instrument will shift about within the package even to the point where the loop element may become disengaged from the semicircular extension at the end of the retainer card. Such an occurrence is aesthetically undesirable and, more importantly, could result in distortion of the shape of the loop making it more difficult to use the instrument. Another disadvantage of the package lies in the tendency of the loop to assume a relatively sharply cornered triangular set after being held in tensioned engagement with the semicircular extension of the retainer card for any length of time. Such a set, deviating from the preferred circular shape of the ligating loop, makes deployment of the instrument in a surgical operation more difficult.